Guilty Read Free Page B

hypocritical of them to commit a crime!
    She scrunched her face. This was going to be the most awful thing of this life sentence – she would never, ever get such treasured moments again. The future lay before her like a canvas which had already been painted – stripes of different shades of grey, each stripe darker than the previous one.
    Pippa. She thought of lovely, loyal Pippa with her huge brown eyes: a stray she had befriended or rather who had befriended her during her series of homeless nights on the streets of York. They had met as she had hid amongst the falling shadows in the Minster gardens, hoping to survive detection, to find a little bit of privacy to sleep for the night. Pippa had seemed an appropriate name for the little scraggy bitch, so hungry that she had devoured Sadie’s last apple core, pips and all!
    They had been inseparable from that moment on. Sadie had managed to make a bit of money during the days, begging, in between being moved on by any wandering police. Suddenly since her new tag-along she found her income trebled – not just the odd coins now but lots of notes. One plea from those huge brown eyes and the members of the public opened their wallets wide. They would have been much more sensible, she acknowledged to herself as she lay there now, to buy the Big Issue from one of the sellers – they were the down-and-outs who were at least trying to get themselves up and going. All her “earnings” went to feed her habits not her stomach. She was happy to survive on the leftovers from the bin outside McDonalds – it was amazing how many people left half burgers and full bags of chips. Her dignity and respect had long since flown but McDonalds’ leftovers kept her and Pippa from death’s door.
    The cold nights were bearable as they huddled together in doorways; she was half fazed anyway. Some days the more thoughtful souls would dash into a nearby baker’s and buy her a sandwich, sometimes even a cake and hot tea and patronisingly or pityingly put them down at her feet as they hurried off to re-join the hustle and bustle of their more conventional lifestyles.
    Pippa relished Sadie’s growing stench as the days turned to weeks without any possibility of a shower or bath. There had been opportunities to get a roof over her head, a bed for the night but such luxuries were not high on her priority list. The charity establishments demanded certain rules which, in her drug-fuelled mentality, she was not prepared to adhere to.
    Eventually she had become one of a little group sleeping amongst the others for protection at night. In the daytime, though, she and Pippa fared much better alone, just the two of them. She had soon worked out the best spots. If she could dodge the authorities, then the queues for the Jorvik exhibition or the Dungeons supplied generous hand-outs. Bored children would want to wander over and pet Pippa. A little spotted red and white kerchief, wrapped around her neck, had endeared her even further to their hearts. The youngsters would return with coins. Some of the tourists wanted photos with Pippa and offered finance in return! Pippa was a true star!
    Fresh tears trickled down Sadie’s cheeks as she recalled her beautiful Pippa. The heroin even took her. Too doped to notice, or dare she admit, even care that she had let Pippa wander off; her senses sniffing out sizzling sausages from an un-franchised burger bar. Sadie’s head had slightly risen, annoyed by the incredibly loud beeping horn of one of those open-topped tourist buses. Her hand had automatically reached out to stroke Pippa’s head and her fingers had tapped along the paving stones feeling for her warm bulk. She had managed to stir herself and had felt a wave of panic as she saw the empty blanket which a kindly old lady had knitted for Pippa. She had pulled herself to her knees, looking around, calling her and then she had noticed, through blurred vision, the bus driver dragging something to the kerb, cursing